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Topic: Toy Fair 2009! (Read 6504 times)

Seeing the Juggernaught compared to figures will be nice too, if they roll it out.

If it is anywhere close to the scale of the concept drawings above, they could have a Hasbro rep drive it out, like they do at auto shows when they are unveiling a car...

I'm thinking there will be four or five surprises, that is four or five items that I haven't seen any speculation about. It was at Toy fair last year that the Walmart BAD sets were introduced, at least one or two of them, right?

I think we'll see the new ships (Vulture and Magna Guard...) and at least waves 3, 4 and 5. Also, they do show exclusives now at TF, correct? If so, those Jedi packs might be there. I'm betting that the Clone Wars will have a ton of stuff, seeing that it's a big hit and was jsut picked up for season 2.

The exclusives were in the Collector Presentation slides last year at Toy Fair, but not in the actual product showroom for photography. I imagine this year will be the same.

I am hoping to see the RotJ wave, just to see which Skiff Guards they settled on and to see what the BAD figures will be for the RotJ wave and the AotC wave. Seeing the 2nd ANH wave would be gravy, but I'm not expecting it.

So, what was everyone's impressions of Toy Fair? Did you like what you saw, was there anything you missed? Overall, I think that things looked pretty good. Clone Wars is obviously the focus right now, so the lack of a lot of OT or even movie stuff is sometimes disappointing. That being said, what is on the way looks great. I have to say, especially basic figure-wise, Hasbro rarely misses much anymore. Most to all of the basic figures - particularly the Legacy Collection - look great. Articulation is up all around, the sculpts are pretty good, and the figures in general are just a better quality these days. For the most part, we're getting the "VOTC quality" in basic figures these days (continuing from ROTS days). Also, I have to say I'm pretty happy as this seems to be the "year of Obi-Wan", with us getting "ultimate" versions of TPM, AOTC, and ANH Obi this year.

The Juggernaut Turbo Tank looks pretty cool, and it was a little surprising to see the Republic Tank in the starfighter assortment. That might be something we actually hadn't seen yet. The others (Vulture/Magna Guard) look good too. The Y-Wing looks neat in the deluxe vehicle assortment, but we'll see if they can make it worth the $60 price. I'm disappointed - but not surprised - at the lack of OT vehicles. Still, what is on the way looks good. Hopefully we'll see a couple next year for Empire's 30th Anniversary.

Glad to see the Evolution packs, but the WM exclusive thing could be iffy. I'm glad to see the Target and Wal-Mart 2 packs continuing, as those are pretty cool. It looks like - at least for some of them - they are using/making better quality figures. Nice to see the deluxe assortment return, with some "mini-rig" type things possibly on the way. Also, I was a little disappointed we didn't see the Galactic Heroes AT-AT, although I'm sure that will be at SDCC. I'm quite happy to see Ackbar on the way in that line though.

Overall, things look good to me for the year. It also seems like we're going to have quite a break again until the new line/packaging change in the fall. Not a lot of the announced stuff is before August it seems.

I agree. Big year for me and my Obi-Wan focus. I also like the Rebel pilots coming out whether they are in comic pack, evolution, or battle pack form. The ships look nice, but most will be a pass for me due to lack of space. Looks like they held back some good stuff for SDCC (Willrow Hood being the first thing to come to mind), so it will be interesting to see what they have there.

I am also excited about the two Force FX sabers they showed. Wish I could get a release date on them!

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Peacekeeper, when it absolutely, positively has to be nuked in 30 minutes or less. Or the next nuke's free!

I know I've read some miscellaneous rumblings here and there, but was there a Q and A this year from Hasbro? Just curious if there were any other nuggets of info that weren't in the official presentation. I thought I read somewhere that they "claimed" that the Juggernaut was the only big vehicle this year, but with all the attempted secret keeping lately, its hard to know what to believe. I'd just like to know how much I need to try to save for .

As for the "break" topic again, I'm wondering if its again the fact that Hasbro has a lot of "irons in the fire" with the movie properties again this year - and a lot of attention is being paid to Wolverine, Transformers 2, and GI Joe. With the new season of CW starting in the fall, it looks like a lot of the product will hit then. It seems like every year is really "back heavy" anymore.

It seems that Hasbro is trying to divide their promotional attention. They'll be promoting two movie lines (Transformers and GI Joe) and relaunching the Star Wars line for the second season of Clone Wars. That seems to be a reasonable explanation for the gap, but Hasbro will certainly be leaning on Star Wars to come through in the 4th quarter for earnings as they did last year. Especially in light of the news of Star Wars being the top license for 2008.

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